A federal appeals court has ordered detained Turkish doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk transferred to a court in Vermont in a blow to the Trump administration as it seeks to deport her for her pro-Palestinian speech.
Justice Department attorneys have sought to prevent Ozturk's transfer from an immigration jail in the Southern state of Louisiana to a federal district court in Vermont, in the US Northeast, where a judge has set a bail hearing for May 9. Proceedings in that court are slated to address her continued detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after she was arrested in March.
A three-judge panel with the US Second Circuity Court of Appeals heard arguments on Tuesday from the Justice Department and Ozturk's attorney before it issued its ruling.
The judges rejected the administration's bid to overturn a lower court ruling mandating Ozturk be returned to Vermont, and gave the Trump administration one week to return her to the US state so she can attend hearings set by District Judge William Sessions.
It is unclear if the Trump administration will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
But President Donald Trump earlier Wednesday issued a social media screed against the US judicial system, saying, in part, that it "is not letting me do the job I was elected to do."
"Activist judges must let the Trump Administration deport murderers, and other criminals who have come into our country illegally, WITHOUT DELAY!!!" he said.
"No one should be locked up for their political views”
Ozturk was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents on March 25 while she was walking down the street in Somerville, Massachusetts in broad daylight. Ozturk was then quickly shuttled between three states as authorities transported her to an immigration prison in Louisiana.
Ozturk co-authored an op-ed last year critical of Israel's war on Gaza in Tufts University’s student newspaper that has been a focal point of the ongoing immigration case.
"No one should be arrested and locked up for their political views. Every day that Rumeysa Ozturk remains in detention is a day too long," Esha Bhandari, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represented Ozturk during the hearing on Tuesday said in a statement after the appellate ruling.
"We’re grateful the court refused the government’s attempt to keep her isolated from her community and her legal counsel as she pursues her case for release," added Bhandari.
Under repeated questioning by Circuit Judge Barrington D. Parker on Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign would not say whether Ozturk's speech was protected by the free speech guarantees enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
"Your honor, we haven't taken a position on that," said Ensign, before arguing that he did not "have authority to take a position on that right now."
The appellate court's decision to give the Trump administration one week to transfer Ozturk has cast into doubt the feasibility of holding Friday's hearing as scheduled.
